Beertopia: Dogfish Head Brewery’s Burton Baton

It’s decent, but I won’t be drinking this again anytime soon. (Little Utopia)

This column reviews a beer based on aroma, appearance, taste, and palate (mouthfeel). At the end of each review, we score the beer based on a five-star system (one star meaning you will likely regret ever drinking such a horrible concoction, five stars meaning it’s your new favorite beer, with two, three, and four stars falling somewhere in between). If any of you wonderful brewers would like to send me beer to review, I would happily accept your offer.

Like 90 Minute, Burton Baton is classified as an imperial/double IPA. Unlike 90 Minute though, Burton Baton is a hybrid, which really makes this an interesting beer. To make it, Dogfish Head actually brews two different beers: an English-style old ale and an imperial IPA. Once those separate beers are ready, they are fused together and aged in an oak barrel for a month.

Burton Baton has a sweet aroma, with hints of vanilla, raisin, and molasses. With it’s copper/orange color, it is remarkably similar in appearance to 90 Minute. Although hops are present in the taste (it is an IPA after all), they’re mostly behind the scenes. Sweet malts, toasted nuts, and vanilla are the major flavors here, with almost a hint of whiskey toward the end. Burton Baton is right on that border between medium and full-bodied, and it’s moderately carbonated.

Although it’s an interesting concept, Burton Baton doesn’t really do it for me. It’s just too sweet, which is not really what I look for in my IPAs. Of course, that’s not to say this a poor effort from Dogfish Head. If you’re in the mood for an IPA that isn’t afraid to have a stronger malt presence and trends toward the sweeter side of things, then this is probably the beer you’re looking for.